rootAbility and Green Office win UNESCO Prize

28th September 2015

The EAUC’s strategic partner, rootAbility, has been announced as one of the first winners of the UNESCO-Japan Prize for outstanding projects related to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).

The UNESCO-Japan Prize was established to honour outstanding efforts of individuals, institutions and organizations engaged in ESD activities and the first winners of the prize were announced by Director-General of UNESCO, Ms Irina Bokova.

rootAbility has received the award for its “Green Office Model” initiative, which trains young people as transformation agents to foster a whole-institution approach towards ESD.  Its main actors are university students who form Green Offices as a team with both teaching and administrative staff of their institution. They learn to run their own activities, such as waste recycling, energy efficiency and sustainable catering, while raising their own funding. Green Offices have already been established in six European countries.

rootAbility was selected as a winner from hundreds of applications from around the world. The prize money is $50,000, which will be boost its efforts to further spread the Green Office Model and strengthen the Green Office Movement.

The social business opened the doors of Maastricht University Green Office in September 2010. Five years later, it has opened 14 funded Green Offices at universities and universities of applied sciences in 6 countries, and is planning to open several more. Check out the map here.

The award strengthens the recognition and value of the Green Office Model and will be handed over in Paris on 5th November.